George Allen Miller One Geek's take on all things SciFi

A few months ago I gave my take on what could be a challenger to the current reigning MMO Eve Online in the space genre. I had thought from the hype, dev talk and fanboys that Star Trek Online (STO) would be a real contender to Eve. Well, it’s February and STO has launched. Final verdict? STO = Epic Fail.

In the interests of full disclosure, I am not currently playing Eve Online. I am also not playing Star Trek Online. As a total side note, I did download and am playing the free trail for Fallen Earth, so far pretty decent. Not to get off topic here, but STO was doomed from the start. Why? Several reasons including instancing and using the same engine from previously held games.

I’ve heard several friends that played beta STO describe it as Champions Online in a star ship. The ratings for this MMO have plummeted from their pre-launch hype stats on MMORPG.com and for good reason.

The one thing that Eve has done very well is having one persistent game world. That is a huge selling point and one that many games just don’t seem to grasp. Instancing sucks. I hate being in a zone and wondering where everyone is only to find out they are in zone 1 and I am in zone 10. Lame.

STO is riddled with instancing. The feel of Star Trek is no where to be found. The competition with Eve is a joke. Eve is still the dominating force behind space based MMO’s. I would say that Fallen Earth is a contender but it’s more of a apocalyptic survival game than a Sci-fi game. It’s just not high tech to have zip gun. Sorry.

Why can’t we see an MMO that combines the best of all worlds? One single persistent universe. Avatars. Endless discovery and exploration. Sandbox environment. Some games are coming close but nothing yet has dared to grasp all of the promise.

One new Sci-fi MMO to keep an eye on is Infinity: The Quest for Earth. They promise 200 billion star systems all generated using an algorithm of some sorts. Again, no avatars, but 200 billion star systems is impressive. Lets see how far this one goes. But as far as an Eve challenger, the jury is way out on that.

Eve Online still stands the test of time. They have somewhat limited PVE but impressive PVP system and stellar conquests. You can’t really get into the real depths of this game going solo but finding a group of people, known as corporations, isn’t that hard. Once they, if they ever, launch their avatar system, once known as ambulation, they may rise to the very top of the list. If they ever get Dust 514 launched and maybe even port it to the PC, this game could be the defacto standard in Sci-fi MMO’s.

If you are deciding to go with STO, don’t. Waste of time. COH and Champions clone in a starship. Shame really. Check out Fallen Earth and barring that Eve Online to get your space fix. Don’t hold your breath on the 200 billion star system MMO though, I have a hunch that’s a long shot.